Hon. Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama,CF(Mil), OSt.J, MSD, jssc, psc
Prime Minister of Fiji and Minister for iTaukei Affairs and Sugar Industry
REMARKS AT THE BILATERAL MEETING WITH THE PREMIER OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, he Mr. Li KEQIANG
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Beijing Thurs 16th July, 2015
CHINA
Your Excellency, the Premier of the People’s Republic of China,
Hon. Ministers and Members of His Excellency’s
Delegation.
Ni Hao.
I bring you the warmest greetings of the Fijian Government and Fijian people. Thank you for hosting us today and for the wonderful welcome afforded to my Delegation since our arrival. As I told his Excellency the President yesterday, this is an especially important visit because it marks the 40th Anniversary of our official relationship and the diplomatic ties China and Fiji established back in 1975.
As I also told the President, Fiji seeks to use this Anniversary to strengthen our great friendship even further. To explore new avenues of co-operation in the international arena. And to explore new ways in which China can assist Fiji on the path to becoming a modern nation state.
Your Excellency,
I raised three key issues with His Excellency the President yesterday – the importance of trade between our two countries; our request that China assist us in the area of climate change; and a specific request for assistance to upgrade the existing airport on the outlying Fijian island of Rotuma.
I intend to canvass these issues in detail with you today. And later we will be signing three MOUs – one on sports co-operation, a joint feasibility study on a Fiji-China Free Trade Agreement and an Agreement on economic and technical co-operation involving a grant of 120 million RMB to support projects in Fiji.
As I told His Excellency the President yesterday, we are deeply grateful for this assistance, as we are for all the assistance China has provided to us over the years. Fiji will never forget the support that China gave us when some of our traditional friends abandoned us because we refused to kow-tow to them after the events of 2006.
Instead of punishing us like they did, China stood by us as we embarked on our comprehensive reform program to create a more equal and just society. We fulfilled our promises to the world when that reform program culminated in our successful election last September. And I again want to thank China for placing its trust in us to create a new Fiji – one of equality, justice and opportunity for every citizen.
Excellency, I invite your response to these opening remarks.
(His Excellency responds)
Thank you Excellency,
To build on Fiji’s achievements, we are currently formulating national development plans – one for the next five years and another for the next 20 years to take us to 2035. And as I told His Excellency the President yesterday, we regard China as a key development partner on that journey.
We have embraced a Green Growth Framework that makes the sustainable development of our resources our number one priority. And we have embraced a Trade Policy Framework that lays out a comprehensive plan to market our goods and services around the world.
TRADE:
Excellency,
Of paramount importance to Fiji on this visit is the issue of trade between our two nations and the urgent need to place it on a more equal footing. We are extremely concerned about the imbalance of Fiji’s trading relationship with China and the obstacles we face in obtaining reasonable access to the Chinese market for our goods and services, especially compared to our neighbours.
There has been a remarkable increase in trade between our nations. In the order of 1049 per cent in just nine years – from $86-million in 2005 to $987-million dollars in 2014. But that increase is because Fiji is importing a lot more from China than it is exporting. In fact, for every dollar of our exports to China, Fiji imports $5.60 worth of Chinese products.
Excellency,
A large part of this imbalance is due to the fact that our ability to export to China is being severely hampered by the tariffs that are being imposed on Fijian made, Fijian grown products. These tariffs are not being applied to some of our neighbours – such as Samoa - because they are designated as Least Developed Countries. But they are being applied to Fiji.
Resources such as fisheries face import duties of an average of 14 per cent while exports from the ASEAN countries are duty free. So we have a situation in which an Indonesian fishing vessel – for instance – can fish in Fijian waters and export fish to the Chinese market duty free. But the catch of a Fijian vessel from the same waters entering your market attracts duty.
Excellency,
We are not only being severely disadvantaged in the marketplace but Fiji is being denied the opportunity to benefit from our natural resources in the manner that any developing nation deserves.
We urgently need to secure the removal of these tariff barriers for Fijian goods and services, that are severely hampering our economic growth and the development of these industries. It is also hampering the development of our people because many of these products are sourced from rural and maritime areas and are the primary source of income for many ordinary Fijians.
Excellency,
I also ask you to consider the fact that Australia has given Fiji and other Non-Least Developed Pacific countries non-reciprocal duty free access into their markets based on the uniqueness of our development challenges. This is a nation that is not as close a friend to Fiji as China has been of late. So we ask that China like Australia also extend the same privilege to us.
This does not set a precedent for other nations or other regions. We in the Pacific have special circumstances and development challenges that others do not face. So I seek your assistance on this matter of vital importance for Fiji.
We regard the MOU we will sign today on the feasibility of a Free Trade Agreement between China in Fiji as separate to the need to remove these tariff barriers altogether to enable us to finally compete with our neighbours on a level playing field. My Delegation is providing you and your Delegation with a list of niche products that we propose should receive duty free access to China.
Excellency, I seek your response to these proposals.
(His Excellency speaks)
Thank you Your Excellency,
AVIATION
We are working together with the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) to institute regular service between Beijing and Nadi. As we have agreed to under the current Air Services Agreement, this would benefit both of our countries. As I said, this Agreement is already established and we think it is time to get started with direct flights and code sharing. We’re ready to go on the Nadi-Beijing route.
However, the CAAC is proposing something of a very different nature. They have put forward the idea of allowing Chinese airlines to escalate the deregulation process to an extent that would be extremely injurious to Fiji.
China’s proposal
The CAAC has proposed that:
ONE: that Routes be deregulated to allow designated aircrafts to fly from not just Beijing, but from any point in China;
TWO: Chinese airlines be allowed to have at least 3 intermediate and beyond points which the Chinese authorities would select;
THREE: Frequency of flights should be increased to 7 flights per week as well as an additional 7 flights for cargo; and
FOUR: Number of Charter flights to be open and subject to approval on an as and when required basis.
Your Excellency,
We cannot accept CAAC’s proposals:
We are a small island developing state and this proposal would undermine our economy, have an impact on our self-reliance and shutdown our national airline.
The proposal from CAAC will have a drastic effect on Fiji Airways flights to Hong Kong which is currently run 3 times a week. Furthermore, with China’s proposal to have intermediate points would mean China can fly via Hong Kong, and further undermine directly our Fiji Airways Hong Kong-Nadi flight.
Furthermore CAAC’s proposal to allow at least 3 intermediate and beyond points which Chinese authorities would select could mean that a Chinese airline could fly into Fiji from any city in China whilst stopping to pick passengers in other countries such as Singapore or Australia before arriving into Nadi.
It would also mean that after reaching Nadi, the same airline could then fly beyond Nadi to other countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Los Angeles, Hawaii or another Pacific Island country.
Fiji Airways has made substantial investments over the years to make the Hong Kong route viable. Therefore, any flights from Guangzhou to Nadi by a much larger airline like China Southern Airlines will have a drastic negative impact on Fiji Airways. The airline has also made major investments in our routes to Australia, New Zealand, Los Angeles, Hawaii and our neighbours in the Pacific.
Fiji’s proposal:
Your Excellency, this is what we are ready to do, and what we have proposed:
On 2 July 2015 the Fijian Department of Civil Aviation wrote to the Civil Aviation Administration of China with a proposed MOU with these provisions for the time being:
ONE: The frequency of flights between Nadi and Beijing to be fixed at 1200 seats per week each way, or about 4 flights per week each way.
TWO: Provisions to encourage the designated airlines of both countries to enter into code-share arrangements.
THREE: The number of charter flights between the two countries to be limited to 15 flights each way per annum for the time being; and
FOUR: That the Civil Aviation authorities of both countries to favourably consider slot allocations for our designated airlines for these destinations.
We cannot allow deregulation, as this would mean larger airlines entering the market and dictating prices as well as routes which will have a detrimental effect on our economy and in particular our tourism sector, which will become solely dependent on foreign airlines.
Fiji is not ready for any deregulation of routes which will shut down our national airline completely when larger and bigger aircraft enter the market.
Your Excellency:
Our countries have already agreed to an ASA. It is a good plan that will benefit us both. It’s time to put it into action and put aside these other ideas which would seriously harm Fiji Airways and Fiji’s economy as a whole. We request that an MOU be established as soon as possible to commence air services on the current agreed route between Nadi and Beijing. First we must develop this route, then we can explore other possibilities on the back of a successful Nadi-Beijing route.
CLIMATE CHANGE:
As I mentioned earlier, Fiji seeks to work with China to explore new areas of co-operation in the international arena. And one of the most pressing from our perspective is climate change. As you know, the Pacific Small Island Developing States are especially vulnerable to the rising sea levels that are accompanying global warming and the melting of the icecaps.
In the case of three of our neighbours – Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands – their very existence is at stake as their atolls sink beneath the waves. Yet even in a group of mountainous islands like Fiji, we are already having to move whole villages out of the path of the rising seas and have identified hundreds of villages and settlements that could eventually be at risk.
We are doing what we can ourselves and Fiji has offered to give a permanent home to the people of Kiribati and Tuvalu – our nearest neighbours – should their nations be submerged altogether. But our collective challenge right now is to get the world, and especially the industrialised nations, to face up to the acute crisis we are facing and take immediate steps to halt the warming process.
Excellency,
I repeat what I told His Excellency the President yesterday: that we seek China’s support for Fiji to lead the campaign – with the other Pacific nations – for a concerted response from all nations at the World Climate Summit in Paris at the end of November.
We ask you to use your global influence to enable us to have our voices heard at the highest level. We are the nations most directly affected. And we must persuade the world to accept the urgent need for binding cuts in carbon emissions to avert catastrophe for the planet and especially our island homes.
We must all come together in Paris – both developing and developed nations – to adequately address this global challenge. We must all adhere to the same standards, irrespective of our level of development. No nation should be part of what I have called “the coalition of the selfish”. Working together as a community of nations, we must finally confront this issue in Paris and deal with it. Or we will be judged very harshly by history and future generations.
Excellency,
At the same time, I seek China’s support to continue to help build our resilience to climate change in the Pacific. We are especially vulnerable to the extreme weather events that can have a devastating effect on our economies and the lives of our people - most recently, the citizens of Vanuatu during Cyclone Pam.
We may not be able to control the forces of climate change but we can certainly control our responses to extreme weather events. Fiji has made resilience a national priority and we are in a constant state of preparedness. During the last event in Fiji at the end of 2012 – Tropical Cyclone Evan – good planning meant that we were spared the loss of a single life. But we must keep refining and developing our response as these events intensify and their impact becomes more frequent and dangerous. While at the same time, working with China and other nations on the broader multilateral response to global warming.